Charge pump circuit

ABSTRACT

A charge pump circuit including a plurality of controlled charge pumps (CPs), a plurality of uncontrolled CPs, a plurality of control units, and an output unit is provided. Each controlled CP determines whether to provide charges to a node by a control signal, and each uncontrolled CP constantly provides charges to the node. The higher the node voltage at the node is, the more the controlled CPs not providing charge to the node are, so as to suppress the voltage of the node. In addition, the output unit regulates and outputs an output voltage according to the node voltage by the negative feedback.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a voltage generating circuit. More particularly, the present invention relates to a charge pump circuit, which can be applied to semiconductor memory devices.

2. Description of Related Art

Source voltages of various voltage levels are usually required in electronic devices, thus, charge pump circuits are usually disposed to generate source voltages of different voltage levels from existing source voltages. For example, FIG. 1 illustrates the canonical values of biases required by a memory cell of a flash memory at reading, writing (or programming), and erasing. For the reason of power saving, currently the source voltage supplied to an electronic device is generally 3.3V or lower, thus, obviously, the 5 V, 7 V, 9 V, and 10 V in FIG. 1 are to be pulled up by charge pump circuits.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a conventional charge pump circuit, which is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,567,309. Referring to FIG. 2, the charge pump circuit 200 includes a voltage detector 210, a clock generator 220, clock controllers 231˜234, and charge pumps 241˜244. The voltage detector 210 detects the voltage V_(P) at node P. Before the voltage V_(P) reaches a predetermined level (for example, 5V, 7V, 9V, or 10V in FIG. 1), the voltage detector 210 enables the clock generator 220 to generate four phase shift clock signals CK₁˜CK₄, which respectively drive the clock controllers 231˜234 and further drive the charge pumps 241˜244 to provide charges to node P, so that the voltage V_(P) is continued to be pulled up. When the voltage V_(P) has been pulled up to the predetermined voltage level, the voltage detector 210 disables the clock generator 220, so that the charge pumps 241˜244 stop providing charges to node P.

In the process described above, the voltage V_(P) is detected by the voltage detector 210 to determine whether to enable or disable all the charge pumps 241˜244, that is, all the charge pumps 241˜244 providing charges to node P or none of the charge pumps 241˜244 providing charges to node P, and further to accomplish the purpose of adjusting the voltage V_(P). However, since all the charge pumps 241˜244 are enabled or disabled, the voltage V_(P) drifts about the predetermined voltage to a great extent when the voltage V_(P) is regulated at the predetermined voltage, and moreover, enabling all the charge pumps 241˜244 will consume power considerably.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the present invention is directed to provide a charge pump circuit having lower power consumption. According to another aspect of the present invention, a charge pump circuit is provided, wherein when the output voltage of the charge pump circuit is pulled up to and regulated at a predetermined voltage, the output voltage drifts about the predetermined voltage to a smaller extent.

According to the aforementioned and other objectives, the present invention provides a charge pump circuit including a plurality of controlled charge pumps (CPs), a plurality of uncontrolled CPs, a plurality of control units, an output unit, and a feedback unit. Wherein, the controlled CPs are determined whether to provide charges to a node by a plurality of control signals, and the uncontrolled CPs always provide charges to the node. The foregoing control signals are respectively generated by the corresponding control units, and the control units are coupled to the node and respectively output control signals according to the node voltage detected at the node. The higher the node voltage is, the more the controlled CPs controlled by the control signals not providing charges to the node are. Moreover, the output unit outputs an output voltage to an output node according to the node voltage at the node. The feedback unit has an input terminal and an output terminal, wherein the input terminal receives the output voltage and the output terminal sends out the output voltage which has been regulated through negative feedback.

In the present invention, some of the CPs are constantly enabled and some CPs are enabled according to the requirement, thus, the power consumption of the charge pump circuit is reduced and the extent of the output voltage drifting about the predetermined voltage is also reduced. Moreover, the output voltage of the charge pump circuit is controlled through negative feedback so that the drifting extent of the output voltage about the predetermined voltage is further reduced.

In order to make the aforementioned and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention comprehensible, a preferred embodiment accompanied with figures is described in detail below.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary, and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.

FIG. 1 illustrates the canonical values of biases required by a memory cell of a flash memory at reading, writing (or programming), and erasing.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a conventional charge pump circuit.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a charge pump circuit according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a simulative diagram of the conventional charge pump circuit and the charge pump circuit 300 in FIG. 3.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a charge pump circuit according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 3, the charge pump circuit 300 includes M charge pumps (CPs) 311˜31(M), wherein N CPs are controlled CPs 311˜31(N) and (M-N) CPs are uncontrolled CPs 31(N+1)˜31(M). In addition, the charge pump circuit 300 further includes N control units 321˜32(N), an output unit 330 and a feedback unit 340. Here, it is assumed that the voltage pull-up capability of each of the CPs 311˜31(M) is the same, that is, the charges (i.e. the current) provided per unit time by each of the CPs 311˜31(M) is the same.

The foregoing M CPs 311˜31(M) are all coupled to node P, wherein the controlled CPs 311˜31(N) are respectively determined by the corresponding control signals CT₁˜CT_(N) whether to provide charges to node P, while the uncontrolled CPs 31(N+1)˜31(M) respectively provide charges to node P constantly. The voltage pull-up capability of the CPs 311˜31(M) is higher when the source voltage received by the CPs 311˜31(M) is high voltage (for example, 3.6V) than the voltage pull-up capability thereof when the source voltage received is lower voltage (for example, 2.7V), thus, generally, it is designed that the total number of CPs (i.e. the value of M) is determined according to the number of CPs required for pulling up the voltage to the predetermined voltage level when the source voltage is lower voltage, and then the number of uncontrolled CPs (i.e. the value of (M-N)) is determined according to the number of CPs required for pulling up the voltage to the predetermined voltage level when the source voltage is high voltage.

The foregoing control units 321˜32(N) are coupled to node P for detecting the node voltage V_(P) at node P and outputting the control signals CT₁˜CT_(N) accordingly. The control signals CT₁˜CT_(N) respectively control the controlled CPs 311˜31(N) to determine whether the controlled CPs 311˜31(N) provide charges to node P. The control unit can be designed to include a voltage dividing circuit and a comparator, wherein the voltage dividing circuit receives the node voltage V_(P) and generates a divided voltage, and then the comparator compares the divided voltage V_(P) and a reference voltage to output a control signal for controlling the corresponding controlled CP. For the convenience of design, the reference voltage in each of the control units is designed to be the same voltage level, such as V_(REF). Here, each of the control units can have the voltage level it can detect and can generate different control signal corresponding to the node voltage V_(P) by only adjusting the voltage dividing circuit in each of the control units. In an embodiment, the voltage dividing circuit includes two resistors connected in series.

For example, the control unit 321 includes a voltage dividing circuit, which is composed of resistors R₁₁ and R₁₂, and a comparator CMP₁. If the reference voltage V_(REF) thereof is 1.2V, the control signal CT₁ is “1” (i.e. logic 1) when the divided voltage V₁ is lower than 1.2V, so as to control the controlled CP 311 to provide charges to node P to pull up the node voltage V_(P). Contrarily, the control signal CT₁ is “0” (i.e. logic 1) when the divided voltage V₁ is higher than 1.2V, so as to control the controlled CP 311 not to provide charges to node P.

Assuming that the predetermined voltage is 6.5V, because V₁=V_(P)*R₁₂/(R₁₁+R₁₂), the resistors R₁₁ and R₁₂ can be respectively adjusted to be 50 kΩ and 11.3 kΩ, accordingly, the control signal CT₁ is “1” when the node voltage V_(P) is lower than 6.5V, and the control signal CT₁ is “0” when the node voltage V_(P) is higher than 1.2V. Similarly, the resistors R₂₁ and R₂₂ of the control unit 322 are respectively adjusted to be 50 kΩ and 10.3 kΩ, so that the control signal CT₁ is “1” when the node voltage V_(P) is lower than 7V, and the control signal CT₁ is “0” when the node voltage V_(P) is higher than 7V. The other control units 323˜32(N) can be inferred accordingly.

Accordingly, when the predetermined voltage is 6.5V and the voltage levels of the different control signals the control units 321˜32(N) can detect and generate are 6.5V, 7V, 7.5V . . . , the control signals CT₁˜CT_(N) enable all CPs 311˜31(N) to accelerate pulling up the node voltage V_(P) when the node voltage V_(P) is lower than 6.5V; the control signals CT₁˜CT_(N) only disable the CPs 311 when the node voltage V_(P) is between 6.5V and 7V; and the control signals CT₁˜CT_(N) only disable the CPs 311 and 312 when the node voltage V_(P) is between 7V and 7.5V; . . . . Through enabling some of the CPs 311˜31(M) permanently and disabling some other of the CPs 311˜31(M) accordingly, the extent of the node voltage V_(P) drifting about the predetermined voltage when the node voltage V_(P) is regulated at the predetermined voltage is reduced, and moreover, since some of the CPs are enabled according to the requirement, the power consumption of the circuit is reduced.

Next, to further stabilize the node voltage V_(P) at the predetermined voltage, in the present invention, the output unit 330 is used along with the feedback unit 340 for negative feedback controlling and the power supply of the feedback unit 340 is V_(DD), wherein the voltage level of the source voltage V_(DD) has to be able to completely turn off the pull-up transistor Q_(P). The output unit 330 includes a pull-up circuit Q_(P) and a pull-down circuit Q_(N) Wherein the pull-up circuit Q_(P) is coupled between the node P and the output node OUT to lead charges at the node P to the output node OUT according to the feedback control voltage V_(CTRL). The pull-down circuit Q_(N) is coupled between the output node OUT and the ground node GND to lead charges at the output node OUT to the ground node GND according to the feedback control voltage V_(CTRL).

In an embodiment, the pull-up circuit Q_(P) is a PMOS (P-channel metal oxide semiconductor) pull-up transistor and the pull-down circuit Q_(N) is an NMOS pull-down transistor. Wherein the first terminal (the source) of the pull-up transistor _(P) is coupled to the node P, the second terminal (the drain) of the pull-up transistor Q_(P) is coupled to the first terminal (the drain) of the pull-down transistor Q_(N), the second terminal (the source) of the pull-down transistor Q_(N) is coupled to the ground voltage GND, and the control terminals (the gates) of the pull-up transistor Q_(P) and the pull-down transistor Q_(N) are coupled to each other and receive the feedback control voltage V_(CTRL).

In an embodiment, the feedback unit 340 includes a voltage dividing circuit, which has resistors R₁ and R₂, and a comparator CMP. Wherein the voltage dividing circuit having the resistors R₁ and R₂ receives the output voltage V_(OUT) from the output node OUT and generates a divided voltage V₀, and then the comparator CMP compares the divided voltage V₀ and a reference voltage V_(REF) and outputs the feedback control voltage V_(CTRL). When the output voltage V_(OUT) received by the input terminal X of the feedback unit 340 is large enough to make the divided voltage V₀ higher than the reference voltage V_(REF), the feedback control voltage V_(CTRL) output from the output terminal Y of the feedback unit 340 is “V_(DD)”. Here, the pull-up transistor Q_(P) is turned off and the pull-down transistor Q_(N) is turned on, so as to lead charges at the output node OUT to the ground node GND, and further to pull down the output voltage V_(OUT). Contrarily, when the output voltage V_(OUT) received by the input terminal X of the feedback unit 340 is small enough to make the divided voltage V₀ lower than the reference voltage V_(REF), the feedback control voltage V_(CTRL) output from the output terminal Y of the feedback unit 340 is “VGND”. Here, the pull-up transistor Q_(P) is turned on and the pull-down transistor Q_(N) is turned off, so as to lead charges at the node P to the output node OUT, and further to pull up the output voltage V_(OU).

FIG. 4 is a simulative diagram of the conventional charge pump circuit and the charge pump circuit 300 in FIG. 3, wherein the present invention is simulated by the charge pump circuit 300 in FIG. 3 while the conventional charge pump circuit is simulated by the charge pump circuit 300 in FIG. 3 minus the control units 321˜32(N) and the controlled CPs 311˜31(N), which is similar to the charge pump circuit 200 in FIG. 2. Referring to FIG. 4, the abscissa is the source voltage Vcc received by the CPs, the ordinate at left is the total source current Ivcc received by the CPs, and the ordinate at right is the node voltage V_(P) (V_(P) is an output voltage to the conventional charge pump circuit; but to the charge pump circuit in the present invention, V_(P) is a node voltage related to the output voltage) of node P in FIG. 3. It can be noted from FIG. 4 that when the source voltage Vcc is higher than 3V, the charge pump circuit 300 of the present invention in FIG. 3 has obviously less total source current Ivcc than the conventional charge pump circuit 200 in FIG. 2, so that the power consumption thereof is less.

In overview, according to the present invention, through enabling some CPs permanently and some other CPs according to the requirement, the power consumption of the charge pump circuit and the extent of the output voltage drifting about the predetermined voltage are reduced. Moreover, the output voltage of the charge pump circuit is further controlled through negative feedback, so that the extent of the voltage drifting about the predetermined voltage is further reduced.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the present invention cover modifications and variations of this invention provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents. 

1. A charge pump circuit, comprising: a plurality of controlled charge pumps, determining whether to provide charges to a node by a plurality of control signals; a plurality of uncontrolled charge pumps, respectively providing charges to the node constantly; a plurality of control units, coupled to the node, detecting a node voltage at the node, respectively outputting the control signals according to the node voltage; an output unit, coupled to the node, outputting an output voltage to an output node according to the node voltage; and a feedback unit, having an input terminal for receiving the output voltage and an output terminal for sending out the output voltage regulated through negative feedback; wherein the higher the node voltage is, the more the controlled charge pumps controlled by the control signals not providing charges to the node are.
 2. The charge pump circuit as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of the control units comprises: a voltage dividing circuit, receiving the node voltage and generating a divided voltage; and a comparator, comparing the divided voltage and a reference voltage and outputting the corresponding control signal.
 3. The charge pump circuit as claimed in claim 1, wherein the feedback unit comprises: a voltage dividing circuit, receiving the output voltage and generating a divided voltage; and a comparator, comparing the divided voltage and a reference voltage and outputting a feedback control voltage.
 4. The charge pump circuit as claimed in claim 3, wherein the output unit comprises: a pull-up circuit, coupled between the node and the output node, leading the charges at the node to the output node according to the feedback control voltage; and a pull-down circuit, coupled between the output node and a ground node, leading the charges at the output node to the ground node according to the feedback control voltage.
 5. The charge pump circuit as claimed in claim 4, wherein the pull-up circuit comprises a pull-up transistor and the pull-down circuit comprises a pull-down transistor, wherein the first terminal of the pull-up transistor is coupled to the node, the second terminal of the pull-up transistor is coupled to the first terminal of the pull-down transistor, the second terminal of the pull-down transistor is coupled to the ground voltage, and the control terminals of the pull-up transistor and the pull-down transistor are coupled to each other and receive the feedback control voltage.
 6. The charge pump circuit as claimed in claim 5, wherein the pull-up transistor is a PMOS transistor and the pull-down transistor is an NMOS transistor.
 7. A semiconductor memory device, comprising a charge pump circuit having: a plurality of controlled charge pumps, determining whether to provide charges to a node by a plurality of control signals; a plurality of uncontrolled charge pumps, respectively providing charges to the node constantly; a plurality of control units, coupled to the node, detecting a node voltage at the node, respectively outputting the control signals according to the node voltage; an output unit, coupled to the node, outputting an output voltage to an output node according to the node voltage; and a feedback unit, having an input terminal for receiving the output voltage and an output terminal for sending out the output voltage regulated through negative feedback; wherein the higher the node voltage is, the more the controlled charge pumps controlled by the control signals not providing chargers to the node are. 